The Rising Tide
by Verboten Byacolate
Summary: Life, Itachi would learn, was full of surprises. Itachi. Kisame. Sasuke. Romance is not an option.


_A/N; _This is not a romantic fic. For now. And NOT with something as disturbing as KisaSasu. And since... stuff happens, I suppose you can call it sort of AU. It's not really... only the events are screwed around with.

_Disclaimer_; I do not own Naruto. Or Sasuke. But Kisame should be mine.

**The Rising Tide**

_Prologue_

The night was bloodred; that's all he remembered. At least, that's what he told me, and the words aren't exactly verbatim, but I knew what he meant. I, however remember it vividly, detail after detail. I suppose it will remain infamous throughout Fire nation for a while.

The Uchiha massacre.

If he didn't remember, though, there was no need to explain my desire to test my abilities to the boy. I'd thought about doing so; many times, in fact. But after much speculation, I decided against it. Instead, moments after he came upon the gruesome sight of my masterpiece, the cold, lifeless bodies of our parents, I swiftly rendered him unconscious (the reason for the yellowed bruise on the back of his neck. He says it doesn't hurt, but I didn't expect him to tell me if it does).

I stole away into the night, a mere whisper against the dark blanket of stars, with my orphaned brother rested against my chest. On my back he could have fallen at any moment, therefore being a waste of precious time: it had nothing to do with brotherly affection. Neither, in fact, does the fact that I have spared his life. I'm not merciful by any means, and "compassion" isn't a part of my vocabulary.

I have plans for my foolish little brother.

Speaking of which, he stirs, now resting on my back after a full two day's worth of walking. He's not used to such exertion, and so exhaustion made its way into his system approximately five hours ago. I only carry him to keep good time.

"Onii-san?" He shifts, wrapping his arms tighter around my neck. "Where are we going?"

I don't give a reply, and he doesn't demand one. We travel in silence once more. I do not tell him that we are in the land of Grass, or that it is just past noon, or that I do indeed notice the white butterfly drifting close and eventually landing on his nose. The way his hands twitched told me of his surprise. The innocence of the situation was just that; simply too innocent for our recent position. Or my own. I count his life as my own now, as I am wholly responsible for him. Troublesome little brother.

"We're meeting up with someone at the border of Grass and Rain," I say briefly, feeling the soft wings of the butterfly brush annoyingly against my cheek before it wandered ahead.

"Oh," he said, leaning his chin on my left shoulder.

"You should sleep," I suggested. "You might not get much rest for a while, and I don't want you to hinder me... _or_ my partner."

"Yes, Onii-san."

Within moments, his breath came out evenly, and his body went slack.

--

We reached the border when the sun dipped below the horizon, and by then Sasuke was awake and irritatingly bright-eyed, scurrying ahead of me to collect firewood at my whim. Mother would have told me that he only wished to be helpful, but Mother had always seemed to favor him. Maybe she had sensed what I was to do in later years... and previous days.

I sighed, taking the sticks in his arms and began to build our fire, and perhaps even the signal my partner was expecting.

"Onii-san?" Sasuke looked at me with surprised eyes. "What happened to your hitai-ate?"

He spoke, of course, of the straight gash through Leaf's symbol.

"We're starting over."

"Eh?'

He wouldn't understand. Not yet. I lifted my finger and tapped on his forehead, smirking at his scowl. "Never mind."

--

Naught but four feet away, the muffled snap of a twig aroused my attention; I hadn't noticed a chakra signature earlier. Sasuke, too, turned wide awake, jumping to my side, his hand diving to the miniature shuriken holster at his side. I, however, remained still as the low sound of chuckling infiltrated our camp.

"You think you can take me on, boy?" came a gravelly voice. A large shape made itself shown through the dark. "You might think twice; I am the Demon Shark of Mist, Hoshigaki Kisame. And you are Uchiha Itachi, I presume?" He stepped forward.

Sasuke gasped in place of my own mild surprise: My new partner was blue. With gills and odd, iris-less eyes. I definitely hoped that that enormous sword strapped to his back made up for my sorry excuse of a comrade.

I was paired with a damned fish.

- 0 -

**This was inspired by my own personal Kisame; Jazmine the Gumball. In PE, I (being in the Kisame-high that I cannot break out of) asked her how to confess one's undying affection to an anime character. She thought I said "fanfiction". So, taking this prompt, I asked her to give me Kisame with any character: She said "Sasuke". At first, I was completely skeptical. But after about a moment's thought, I came up with this scheme. **

**Thank you, o' great Sex Fish replica of mine. And a huuuge thank you to my beloved WinterThunder, who helped me figure out a way to begin this.**

**-Bya**


End file.
